Black History Month - Rebecca Allin, LLG

Black History Month

As October comes to an end, we are able to reflect on the importance of Black History Month which provides an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the contributions of Black People within the United Kingdom and our legal sector.

There are many successful Black, Asian and minority ethnicity lawyers across England and Wales whom we need to champion more. The sector is vastly different from that at the turn of the 20^th Century, and yet, we are still far from where we ought to be.

 It is apparent that there is something wrong which is creating variances between White, Black, Asian and minority ethnicity lawyers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) identified in 2021-2022, that Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers total only just 18% of lawyers working in law firms, an increase of just 1% from 2019.  Back in 2019, pass rates on the then LPC sent alarm bells through the sector when just 40% of Black students compared to 80% for white students passed the course. When the SRA brought in the SQE, a pilot in 2019 identified similar comparisons, this led the to SRA changing the written element embedded within the SQE 1 to a multiple-choice paper. However, in 2022 when the SQE 1 results came back, the maths remained worrying, with a 39% pass rate for Black students comparted to 66% for White. The SQE 2 part of the qualifying aspect reflected the same disparity too.   In consequence, Anna Bradley, chair of the SRA, expressed that in order to address this issue, Exeter University had been appointed to carry out in-depth research to understand the factors driving the disproportionate gap in the professional assessments.

Whilst a recent LLG survey demonstrates within our sector above average representation of Black and Asian lawyers as against the population, this does not play out across private law firms and in particular when you look at the senior level. The SRA found that only 17% of partners at Law Firms were Black, Asian or minority ethnic lawyers. Whilst the local government legal sector might be doing better, the data on local government as a whole requires work to be done.

This month, SOLACE held it's annual Summit and introduced their 2023 report: “Understanding and Improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Local Government Workforce across the UK”.  In it, SOLACE states “Workforce diversity is crucial in an organisation that is fair and that provides services catering to the population’s needs. Actively mitigating unconscious bias in recruitment promotes equal opportunities and widens talent pools. A diverse workforce brings varied ideas, skills, and perspectives, and enhances decision-making, productivity, understanding of community needs, and creativity. Ensuring diversity at all levels improves retention and boosts morale and engagement”.

Our President, Rachel McKoy was at the Summit to welcome the report and said, “This is an important and poignant dataset which says a great deal about the current landscape of the local government workforce. The data speaks volumes about how truly representative councils are if they are firstly, failing in their Public Sector Equity Duty, and secondly, do not reflect the communities they serve. Ultimately who do they speak for? Who is informing crucial decisions on matters that have such impact on the daily lives of our collective residents?

Solace is definitely rallying the sector to do better to address this disparity and account for it. Whilst acknowledging change will be a marathon not a sprint, the focus and conversation concerning this issue will retain a place of focus alongside various other initiatives to assist in redressing the balance.

Diverse leadership and diversity of voice is not only smart but necessary in a global community."

Rebecca Allin

Legal Training, Membership Support and Project Coordinator

LLG